Wednesday, 9 September 2015

Modernisation

I had occasion to go into the Orange shop in Laval, and since there is a coffee shop just opposite, planned also to have a late breakfast and coffee. My memory of the bar is of an old-fashioned typical French coffee bar/restaurant; slightly faded decor, dim lighting, and in particular, a loo on the other side of the corridor, that you have to ask the barman for a key for.

Wrong! The place has been modernised: dramatic colour scheme, sensible lighting levels, comfortable furniture, disabled accessible toilets, mulitple named types of coffee and tea, and fancy pastries and tarts. Two coffees and a little chocolate tart cost us just over 10 euros. I guess that you have to respond to changing markets, and the banning of ciggie smoking indoors has changed the clientelle for these kinds of places.

I find it's both good and bad. I can see the point of making sure, for example, that modernised business premises are accessible to people with various kinds of disabilities, but do I not, as an able-bodied person, also have the right to enjoy quirky, difficult but characterful places where the loos are down the corridor, up the narrow spiral stairs and under the low beam?

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Me

By a beautiful river valley in North-West France. This blog is about the day-to-day events in running a group gîte in Mayenne. There's a lot of gardening, maintenance, but, I hope, a lot of fun too.
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